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a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available.
B. Service Marketing
Services are often seen as a complex phenomenon. The word of services itself has many meanings, from personal service to service as a product. So far
it has been a lot of marketing expert services that have attempted to define the understanding of services. Some of them are; Lovelock et al 2005:9define
service are economic activities offered by one party to another, most commonly employing time-defined performances to bring about desired result
in recipients themselves or in objects or other assets for which purchasers have responsibility. Service customers expect to obtain value from access to labor,
professional skills, facilities, networks, systems, and equipment, but no not normally take ownership of any of the physical elements involved. While
according to Kotler Keller 2009:386, a service is any act or performance one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result
in the ownership of anything.
1. Service Marketing Characteristics
Based on Kotler Keller 2009:389-391, there are four characteristics of service:
a. Intangibility Unlike physical products, service cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or
smelled before the purchase, and the patient in the psy chiatrist’s office
cannot know the exact outcome of treatment.
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b. Inseparability Whereas physical goods are manufactured, put into inventory,
distributed through multiple resellers, and consumed later, service are typically produced and consumed simultaneously.
c. Variability Because the quality of service depends on who provides them, when
and where, and to whom, services are highly variable. d. Perishability
Services have little or no tangible components and therefore cannot be stored for a future use. Services are produced and consumed during the
same period of time.
2. Service Marketing Mix
According to Lovelock et al 2005:25-26, there are seven elements of service marketing mix, referred to as 7Ps of service marketing, represent a
set of interrelated decision variables facing managers of service organizations.
a. Product Elements Managers must select the features of both the core product either a
good or service and the bundle of supplementary service elements surrounding it, with reference to the benefits desired by customers and
how well competing produtcs perform. In short, we need to be attentive to all aspects of the service performance that have the
potential to create value for customers.
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b. Place and Time Delivering product elements to customers involves decisions on the
place and time of delivery, as well as the methods and channels employed. Delivery may involve physical or electronic distribution
channels or both, depending on the nature of the service being provided.
c. Promotion and Education No marketing program can succeed without effective communication.
This component plays three vital roles: providing needed information and advice, persuading target customers of the merits of a specific
product, and encouraging them to take action at specific times. In service marketing, much communication id educational in nature,
especially for new customers. Companies may need to teach these customers about the benefits of the service, where and when to obtain
it, and provide instructions on how to participate in service processes. d. Price and Other Cost of Service
This component addresses amangement of the costs incurred by customers in obtaining benefits from the service products. Service
managers not only set the selling price, trade margins, and establish credit terms; they also seek to minimize, where possible, other costs
that customers may bear in purchasing and using a service, like related costs e.g., travel expenses, time, and mental and physical effort.
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e. Physical Environment The appearance of buildings, landscapings, vehicles, interior
furnishing, equipment, staff members, signs, printed materials, and other visible cues all provide tangible evidence of a firm’s service
quality. f. Process
Creating and delivering product elements to customers require the design and implementation of effective processes. A process is the
method and sequence of actions in the service performance. Badly designed processes like slow, bureaucratic, and ineffective service
delivery, commonly annoy customers. g. People
Many services depend on direct interaction between customers and a firm’s employees like getting a haircut or talking to a call center
staff. The nature of these interactions strongly influences the customer’s perceptions of service quality.
C. Retail
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